Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Miss Saigon: Review

Miss Saigon: Review

It is unsurprising to hear
that Lawrence Connor’s new production of Miss Saigon broke box office records on
its first day of sales. Boubil and Schönberg’s musical can only be described as
epic in all proportions yet still manages to produce a truly superb show.

The musical famously takes its
central ideas from the opera Madame Butterfly, yet transfers the location to
1970s Vietnam as Saigon falls, making the doomed relationship between bar worker
Kim, and American GI, Chris.

Eva Noblezada (Kim) and Sangwoong Jo (Thuy)

Eva Noblezada shone as Kim in
her professional and West End debut, and is clearly deserving of her
Whatsonstage Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her desperation in caring for
her son, and in discovering she is doomed to never be with Chris, was positively
heart-breaking.

Chris Peluso, as Chris, sung well
but it was hard to like his character. In contrast, Ethan Le Phong (Thuy) was
superbly determined for Kim to return his love. Hugh Maynard (John) left a chilling
and poignant message in Act 2 opener, Bui Doi, reminding us how that the true
effects of war goes further than just who lives and who dies.

The show was stolen, however,
by Jon Jon Briones as The Engineer. Having featured in the original production
in 1989, Briones’ Engineer was vulgar and brash, with his rendition of The
American Dream a visual masterpiece.

Ho Chi Minh City. The Morning of the Dragon.

Totie Driver and Matt Kinley’s
set design was superb, ranging from the neon slickness of Bangok to the
extraordinary and impressive scenes at the fall of Saigon featuring the
world-famous helicopter which was even more impressive than expected.

What is clear from the new
production Miss Saigon is that it if more orientated on the political nature of
the musical. The capitalist ventures of America seem mirrored in the doomed entrepreneurship
of The Engineer, whilst Kim kills herself in order to ensure her son gets a
better life in America. It is a real shame that a musical that takes itself
seriously enough to carry such heavyweight themes so well is to leave London in
February 2016, but this is definitely a spectacle not to miss.